The purpose of the cutters was to eliminate the coal miner to no longer lay on his back & undermine the coal for hours on end. This machine would cut under the seam of coal causing the weight of the coal to collapse above the cut & to easily be loaded into mine cars for further processing.

The cutter usually had a rail mounted sled that the cutter would go from workings to workings. Utilizing the motor on the cutting machine a chain would be added on to the sled to allow the machine to go to the next working without having to push this enormous beast.

The problem with this machine when introduced is that it created alot of coal dust. They never used water at that time for dust control. At least the model that we have been restoring is an explosion proof model. Past cutters were not built to this standard which now changed the entire coal industry of equipment to build everything with the "NEW" explosion proof standards. More & more coal miners were killed by explosions & standards were adopted quickly to regulate the safety of the miners.

The operated was now exposed to the most dangerous environments in the entire industry of coal mining.

If the cutting bar would kill you first then the dust would get packed into their lungs latter causing "BLACK LUNG"

This machine quickly got its name as the:

"WIDOW MAKER"

Check out the diagrams on how this early machine operated in a room & pillar method.

Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2005 2:34 pmPosts: 6906Location: Within 60 Miles of the Northern Anthracite Field

man that must have been terrible.i cant even imagine the dust that must have created not to mention the flying coal also. safety glasses didnt even exist in those days. fire damp was highly explosive which consists of a mixture of methane gas released from the coal and coal dust combined. it was then ignited by the miners open flame head lamp causing an explosion........ wonder where the coal dust came from........

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